ALCOHOLSocial Drinking in Cultural ContextJanet Chrzan

Chapter Four: A Short History of American Drinking

© 2014 Taylor & Francis

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Benjamin Franklin

No nation is drunken where wine is cheap; and non sober, where the dearness of wine substitutes ardent spirits as the common beverage. It is, in truth, the only antidote to the bane of whiskey.

Thomas Jefferson

Image sources: (top) Benjamin Franklin: Joseph-Siffred Duplessis [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons, Thomas Jefferson: Rembrandt Peale [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Early American Drinking Patterns

• Americans drank a lot of alcohol … what is the evidence?

• What were people drinking? Who was drinking what?

• What were the class and gender differences in drinking habits?

• What kinds of beliefs surrounded drinking? What sorts of social actions followed those beliefs?

• Why did drinking became socially problematic during the 19th century?

• Why was temperance adopted by so many Americans during the 19th century?

© 2014 Taylor & Francis

From Benjamin Rush’s 1790 temperance textAn Inquiry into the Effects of Spirituous Liquors on the Human Body and the Mind (Boston, Thomas and Andrews)

Image source: Nathaniel Currier (The Library of Congress) [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Changes in How Citizens View Alcohol Use, Overuse, and Abuse

• 1780 (Rush): The problem is alcohol, especially spirits, not the person. Drunkards are made, not born.

• 1800: Temperance advocates use morality arguments to persuade other citizens to abstain from hard liquor.

• 1830: Temperance advocates forbid “teetotalers” from using alcohol in any form.

• 1840: Temperance advocates seek to deny access of other citizens to all alcohol.

• 1860: Women get involved in the temperance movement.

© 2014 Taylor & Francis

Changes in How Citizens View Alcohol Use, Overuse, and Abuse

• 1840–1880: Temperance practices linked to Protestant Church revival movements.

• 1890: Wine and beer linked with anti-immigration, anti-corruption and racist political platforms.

• 1915: Grains diverted to war effort; alcohol nonessential use and beer drinking linked to German ethnicity.

• 1919: 18th Amendment passes. Image source: Woman putting flask in her

boot, Washington, D.C. National Photo Company Collection. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

© 2014 Taylor & Francis

Changes in How Citizens View Alcohol Use, Overuse, and Abuse

• 1920–1933: National Binge.• 1933: Repeal of Prohibition.• 1933–1970: US Cocktail Culture in

full efflorescence (think Mad Men!).• 1960+: Alcohol increasingly seen as

health problem by clinicians and citizens.

• 1980: Start of a Neo-Prohibitionary period in which legal control of access linked to citizen status (age, ethnicity, gender, status, etc.) and to purported public health outcomes. Individual responsibility emphasized as medical treatment and rehab is increasingly denied to those labeled abusive or addicted. Revival of the politics of sin.

© 2014 Taylor & Francis

Gallery of Images: Prohibition, Neo-Prohibition, and Public Health Warnings (PSA announcements)

Arthur, T.S. (1877). Strong Drink: The Curse and the Cure. Philadelphia, Hubbard Brothers.